How Amitabh and Jaya fell in love

It might have been love at first sight with Amitabh, said veteran actress Jaya Bachchan when asked if she fell in love with the megastar instantly. In conversation with fashion designer duo Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla on their TV chat show "The First Ladies with Abu Sandeep", to be aired on NDTV Good Times, Jaya said "Maybe" when asked whether love happened instantly.

Recounting her first meeting with Big B, the 60-year-old actress said: "I first saw Amitji in an institute. I saw him, I liked him and I told my friends that you know he has got a personality. And they said what...he looks like a stick!"

"He was very thin and his face was full of his eyes. I remember I fought with my friends and said he is different."

Jaya, who has been married to the actor for 35 years now, also narrated how the two had to tie the nuptial knot under hurried circumstances. "We all, a group of friends, had decided that if 'Zanjeer' did well, we'll all go for a holiday to London. And it did well. But Amitji's parents objected and said that you can't go for a holiday with a girl without being married to her."

"Of course, he had told his parents that this is the girl that he wanted to marry. So, he said what's the big deal, we'll get married. We just decided. I was shooting in Calcutta and he called me and said that this is what happened. I said it's okay with me. But you will have to ask my parents. He said okay I'll call them and call you back. He spoke to my parents and my parents were like 'ahem hmm mm ok'," she said.

The actress, who starred in films 'Chupke Chupke', 'Guddi, 'Bawarchi', 'Silsila', 'Abhimaan', 'Mili', 'Khamoshi', 'Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham', 'Fiza' and 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' apart from several other hits, says a lot changed when she had to shift in with her in-laws after her marriage.

"There is a difference between a daughter and a daughter-in-law. I don't know why but you feel you don't need to respect your parents. You take your parents for granted. With your in-laws, you can't do that and later on things change. Today, I feel more of a Bachchan than a Bhaduri (her maiden name)," she said.

In the celebrity question round of the show, Maharani Padmini Devi of Jaipur asked Jaya about which role does she like the most - daughter, actress, wife, mother or grand mother?

To this, the actress, who is also a prominent member of Parliament promptly replied: "Grandmother! It's of course grandmother. No responsibility."

The entire episode of "The First Ladies with Abu Sandeep" would be on air at 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Slumdog Millionaire Wins 5 Critics' Choice Awards Including Best Picture

The acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire has swept the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards winning five top prizes including Best Picture of 2008. The Mumbai-set film also won Best Director for Danny Boyle, Best Writer for Simon Beaufoy, Best Composer for A.R. Rahman, and Best Young Actor/Actress for Dev Patel. The awards were given out in Los Angeles by the Broadcast Film Critics Association which represents 200 of the top film critics across the United States.

The Critics' Choice Awards have been a strong indicator of the Oscar front-runners with 70% of its award winners also going on to win at the Academy Awards. Last year, No Country for Old Men from Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Picture and Best Director from the BFCA and went on to win those same awards at the Oscars.

Aishwarya Rai turns politician

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan could contest in the forthcoming parliamentary elections that are due in a couple of months. Efforts are on to persuade the beautiful actress to enter politics. It is well known that the Bachchans have a strong connection with the Samajwadi Party. It is worth mention here that Jaya Bachchan, wife of Amitabh Bachchan, is currently
Aishwarya Rai

a Member of the Parliament on the Samajwadi ticket. The party is trying to rope in several actors to be fielded against top politicians.

Sources also have it that actor Sanjay Dutt could contest against the former Prime Minister Vajpayee from the Lucknow constituency.

Unluck by chance for Hrithik Roshan

Though the film's titled Luck By Chance, the unpredictable Mumbai rains played a major spoil sport during a song shoot of Zoya Akhtar's directorial debut film.

At the shoot of the Circus scene, where a song sequence was being shot with Hrithik Roshan, the rains washed out the entire set.

The situation became so bad that the entire tent started to leak and Gaffer was afraid that this would lead to short-circuit. Hence, all the lights had to be switched off and there was a black out.

"It was raining very heavily the day we were shooting for a song sequence and the entire set that was created was washed out. Since the shot was that of a circus we had set up a tent, which was soaked in water.

Which is why we had to cut off all the power supply, and the shooting had to be stalled; It was as if we were in the titanic, with the huge set, no electricity and water everywhere around us.", said producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

Luck By Chance is starring Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharvani, Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Hrithik Roshan. It also has Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan in special appearances.

Ghajini released in Pakistan…

As tension is much higher between India and Pakistan these days after Mumbai attacks, the new Indian movies have stopped releasing in Pakistan. It’s Aamir Khan’s Ghajini, which is being released now in Pakistan on 9th January.

"Ghajini has been cleared by the censors and we are anticipating it to be a big hit in Pakistan as it is Aamir’s first release in theaters in the country," well-known distributor and exhibitor Nadeem Mandviwalla told the press.

Ghajini is first Indian film released in Pakistan after the 26/11 incident, will be screened in four cinemas
in Karachi.

People in Pakistan were also waiting for SRK’s ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, but that could not be released due to tensions between the countries.

Ajay Devgan drops wife in next film…

Ajay Devgan, after making his directorial debut with ‘U, Me Aur Hum’ is now going to direct his second movie. And the interesting news is that the hubby does not want her wife to play the role in the film…! Instead he says, he does not have a suitable role for Kajol.

Kajol is playing the lead role in Karan Johar’s ‘My Name is Khan’ opposite Shah Rukh Khan. But she does not have a role for her hubby’s film. Weird…!

Ajay says on this, “I’m directing a film in mid-2009. There is no role for Kajol in my next film. The leading lady’s role doesn’t suit her.”

He now wants to do an action movie. On this, he says, “I haven’t done a full-on action film for ages. My next film as a director would be an action drama with an undercurrent of dark humour. Even Milan Luthria’s film that I’m acting in, is an action film. I believe audiences want to see me back in action. The action in my directorial venture will be something unusual."

Sherlyn Chopra meets a severe accident…

The sex bombshell, who does not care about anything and has a dare to bare attitude to exhibit her body, Sherlyn Chopra met with a serious accident while she was shooting for Yash Raj Films’ movie in Chandigarh. The actress, who shot to fame with her music album titled ‘Outrageous’ though she had done Hindi movies earlier in her career.

The actress cum singer banged her head against the sharp edge of a wall. It caused a huge red bump to appear on her forehead. This resulted in immense pain.

A unit member revealed as to what happened, “Sherlyn is very vivacious and bubbly by nature. She does not like to sit at one place and ends up playing games after pack-up. Sherlyn is an expert at badminton and swimming. At times to unwind, she also likes to indulge in games like hide and seek that are usually played by children. Shrelyn was playing with her staff in the hotel lobby and that’s when the accident happened. She was too shocked to react initially. Sherlyn was also very conscious of the bump that had occurred on her forehead."

After the accident, she requested the director Anurag Singh for a three days break so that the bump can be healed up. But when the director told her that with the help of modern technology of make-up, the bumps can be concealed, she agreed to shoot.

Now Sherlyn has vowed to play only indoor games. What games does she play indoors? Your guess is as good as mine…!

Aamir lauded for anti-smoking scene in 'Ghajini'

Panaji (PTI): A Mumbai-based public health institute has lauded Aamir Khan Production Pvt Ltd for the actor's anti-smoking scene in the latest blockbuster, 'Ghajini'.

Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health has sent a letter of appreciation to Aamir Khan Productions Pvt Ltd applauding him for the scene in his latest blockbuster hit 'Ghajini'.

The latest Aamir Khan flick has shown a gang of hooligans smoking in a mall which is objected to by one of the actress.

"The scene highlights the team's sensitivity in correctly portraying public smoking as an unlawful activity, especially since most producers and directors tend to glamorise the act of smoking and some of them defend it as creative freedom," the institute director Dr P C Gupta said.

"When a celebrity smokes publicly or in a movie as a character, he or she not only violates the law but also influences the fans to start consuming tobacco. According to a research, 52 per cent children have their first puff of cigarette after watching a celebrity light up," he said.

"We appreciate and thank Murugadoss, the director of 'Ghajini', and Aamir Khan for highlighting such an important fact even though we certainly do not favour any violence against smokers," Gupta said.

The Kat factor in Ranbir, Deepika's love life

Is there trouble in paradise for Bollywood's starry-eyed couples?

First on the radar are Salman and Katrina who spent New Year's eve together, but whispers say that this is just a patch up attempt after reports of their estrangement made the rounds.

Katrina's absence at his birthday bash began the rumours which grew with stories that Salman was not too happy when his lady love showed up constantly on the sets of Veer.

The Kat factor showed up to scratch another happy couple. We hear Deepika Padukone made an unpleasant surprise visit to Ranbir's film shoots to check out stories of him and Katrina being close friends.

But Deepika who is quoted as saying she wants to be Mrs Kapoor in the next four years, is ready to make amends, spending some quality time with him on her birthday.

And something's definitely cooking as wedding bells have been called off for Ayesha Takia and her hotelier boyfriend Farhan Azmi.

The actress who was refusing films so far, is now going on a signing spree, after her wedding was postponed indefinitely. Are they heading for splitsville? We will find out sooner or later.

Akshay Kumar: The forest ranger

Akshay Kumar is playing a forest ranger based in Canada in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Eight by Ten, a thriller which also stars Ayesha Takia, Vinod Khanna and Sharmila Tagore.

A source says, “The shooting is on in Canada and Akshay plays a person of Indian-origin who is a forest ranger. It’s been a while since Akshay has done a thriller.”

Reportedly, Akshay’s look is one of the main attractions of the film. He will predominantly sport a ranger’s uniform. Apart from this, he will also be seen in jumpers, check shirts and jeans.

Designer, Shabina Khan, says, “Akshay is very cooperative and loves to experiment with his looks. Eight by Ten will show him how no one has seen him before. His initial look is too simple in sync with the character of a typical American ranger. He sports his uniform with not too many experiments with clothes. He doesn’t carry the same look throughout the movie though. He brightens up the screen with some real cool outfits like jumpers, shirts, etc.”

3 awards for SRK's 'Rab Ne…'

The awards season for Hindi films usually starts off in the New Year but a leading news channel Aaj Tak decided to voice their opinion loud and clear in the year end!
'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' was declared best film of the year 2008. The year end Movie Masala awards which bases its honours exclusively on the votes of the viewers of Aaj Tak, have also declared Anushka Sharma as the debutante of the year and acknowledged Aditya Chopra's return behind the camera as the best directorial turn of the year.

Asked to comment on her win by Aaj Tak, Anushka was humility personified. "It is honour enough to work with Aditya Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan and the entire Yash Raj Films team. To win any kind of recognition on top of that is just icing on the cake. I hope that my subsequent work will live up to the expectations that viewers have of me after this kind of a stellar launch that Yash Raj Films has given me."

Ghajini will be the biggest ever Indian film'

As 2008’s monster movie Ghajini smashes box office records, Madhu Mantena, co-producer of the film, tells Sify.com about the amazing success story of this Aamir Khan starrer. Excerpts from an interview:

Did you expect Ghajini to be this big?

The response to Ghajini has been overwhelming. We knew we had one of the biggest ever films in hand. We wanted to ensure that the film got the opening it deserves. Which is why we went ahead with the release of 1,500 prints and created an unprecedented marketing buzz around the film.

We’ve already collected a gross of Rs 170 crore worldwide and I'm sure this will be the first Indian film to cross Rs 200 crore in collections.

It’s been two long years of hard work and the team is totally elated.

Sallu, SRK's V-day gift for their armcandies

You might still be sending New Year wishes, but the Khans — Salman and Shah Rukh — have already planned special Valentine’s Day gifts for their darlings — Katrina Kaif and Gauri Khan.

While sources say that Shah Rukh plans to dedicate his next release, his home production Billoo Barber, to wife Gauri, Salman has gone one step further — we hear he is buying Katrina a huge apartment in Mumbai’s star-studded neighbourhood of Bandra, to be decorated by Hrithik Roshan’s wife Suzanne.

According to our sources, Sallu and Kat are in a particularly rosy phase of their affair — Katrina has been visiting Salman on the sets of London Dreams and Veer; and recently, when Salman drove an autorickshaw in Mumbai, a concerned Katrina followed him in his car. Now the boyfriend wants to show his love in kind.

According to the property dealer, “the deal is almost finalised. After an intensive recce, Salman picked this flat. And he wants it ready by February 14.” Besides the location, the architecture of the building appealed to Salman, says the dealer.